Digital Radio Austria Appeals to Lawmakers to Facilitate DAB+

Vienna�During the recent radio summit, as part of Austrian Media Days, Wolfgang Struber, Vice-Chairman of the association Digital Radio Austria, appealed to Austrian lawmakers to facilitate digital radio transmissions in that country.� Some of the points he made were:

DAB + is not technological, but a media, transport and security issue

DAB + is already the standard across Europe for digital terrestrial radio transmission

Digital Radio �re-assigns� the radio landscape �from scratch�

Wolfgang Struber

"Nationwide Digital Radio broadcasting will be a radio landscape under entirely new rules," Struber continues.� �The previously applicable "market order" - synonymous with innovation restraint and desiccation of the radio market - dissolves.� 18 new programs on DAB +, where only 1 program so far could be sent, show the dynamics that belongs in Austria.�

"A modern, future-proof, national broadcasting infrastructure is systemically important for a democracy," says Struber.� "Digital radio is a win for democracy."

The Emergency Warning Functionality (EWF) and the digital standard for traffic information TPEG also allow a variety of new and better services in the field of road safety, disaster relief and civil protection.�This makes it clear how much the construction of a digital, powerful and reliable radio station network is an infrastructure project in the public interest, according todigitalradio-oesterreich.com.�

The same article goes on to say �terrestrial radio is the only universal technology which can be received free everywhere.� Radio is the only platform that can provide services and widespread coverage in the public interest.� In its analog form, there are no other development opportunities.� At the same time Internet is not a substitute for terrestrial radio, but a supplement that corresponds to our hybrid media behavior: individual, fragmented, social and interactive.��

On the basis of an infrastructure agreement between Bayerischer Rundfunk (BR), Bayerische Landeszentrale für neue Medien (BLM) and Bayern Digital Radio GmbH (BDR), the operation and use of the DAB+ digital radio networks in Bavaria, Germany will be soon be reconfigured, according to teltarif.de.